


Looking to the Future

by smolowl



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: F/M, I feel like you can ignore it if you want but whatever, sort of shippy?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-27
Updated: 2020-10-27
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:14:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27219244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smolowl/pseuds/smolowl
Summary: After Dimitri is injured on the battlefield, Byleth invites him to her room to have tea and check up on him.  A conversation about helping and healing ensues.
Relationships: Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd/My Unit | Byleth
Kudos: 31





	Looking to the Future

**Author's Note:**

> Nothing too graphic is described, but blood and stitches are mentioned, so if that bothers you feel free to not read!

Dimitri fell to one knee, dagger sticking out from a gap in his armor. Glaring upwards, he gripped his lance, ready to go down fighting. However, instead of an enemy, he found Byleth in front of him, sword drawn and bloody. A body fell to her feet with a dull thud. 

She looked over her shoulder, bright green eyes meeting his. He watched her expression shift from that emptiness she always wore in battle to one of concern. "Dimitri!" Her eyes fell on the dagger in his back.

He turned away, glare now directed at the torn up ground. Being the object of her concern felt wrong. Only recently had he come out of that haze that had gripped him, finally hearing the voices of the living after so long of listening to the whispers of the dead. He had apologized for his actions, but words had always rung empty to him. He couldn't bear for her to look at him with such worry. "I'm fine," he growled, teeth grit, and went to stand.

A firm hand on his shoulder stopped him, and he winced as the movement pulled on the knife. "You aren't." He looked up in surprise, finding Byleth scowling, eyebrows low and angry. "I'll have Mercedes come over and heal you, and then I want you to defend the back. You don't need any more injuries." 

Dimitri snorted, thinking of the scars that littered his skin. "I'm well enough to keep fighting. Let me—"

"I'm not arguing with you." Even through his armor, he could feel Byleth's grip tighten. "Wait here, and once you're healed, move to the back. I'll handle the front."

Dimitri said nothing, but when she removed her hand, he stayed still. He kept his eyes on the ground as he heard her boots crunch away in the short, dried grass of the battlefield.

\-----------

Byleth had invited Dimitri over for tea that evening, and being a fool, he accepted. Somehow her room seemed smaller than he remembered, though perhaps he was just bigger. Her desk was still the same, and he could remember her helping him there when he was a student, going over weapon advantages and battalion formations. He still had the same uneasiness he had back then, that he was intruding in her personal space, and he was breaching some boundary of etiquette. Byleth never seemed to care about formalities of any kind, so he had kept this to himself. 

Now, too, he said nothing as he pulled out the small chair she had for guests, sitting at the table decorated for tea. He absentmindedly chewed on a pastry, licking stray jam from his fingers while Byleth stood over the teapot. 

Soon enough, it began whistling, and Byleth brought it over. She poured him a cup before pouring her own, and the light smell of chamomile filled the air. Despite the soothing scent, Dimitri found himself tense under her attention, limbs pulled inwards to take up as little space as possible.

Byleth blew over her tea, taking a sip. "Are you okay after the battle?"

Dimitri huffed, taking a sip of his tea to delay his answer. "Of course. It was just a dagger. I have been through much worse." Byleth's gaze turned sad, and Dimitri almost flinched away. Of course he would say the wrong thing. Trying to cover up his mistake, he quickly followed with, "Mercedes healed me, though it still needed stitches. She said I should be fully recovered in a week or two." Dimitri's eye shifted to the rug. "I am still able to fight, professor. Please do not keep me from battle."

He heard Byleth sigh, and his eye narrowed. He should tell her again that she needn't worry over him. What he had done was unforgivable. His hands balled into fists; he could almost feel the sticky blood they had been covered with earlier. He shouldn't have come here, to her room, her private area, even if she had asked him. He couldn't—

A light touch on the back of his hand startled him, and he jerked his head up to find Byleth's hand gently laid over his. The touch of skin on skin was so foreign and jolting to him she might as well have set the burning teapot on his hand. He meant to pull away, but he found himself frozen, trapped beneath her gaze. "Dimitri." Just her saying his name was enough to send a shiver through him, and his eye fell again. "I know you are no longer my student, but I still worry about you. When I found you in the goddess tower, I didn't even recognize you. I felt terrible that I wasn't there for you."

"Professor, please," Dimitri said, frowning. "You cannot blame yourself for that."

Byleth's other hand reached out, and she took his hand between hers. He still couldn't bring himself to meet her eye. "I cannot go back and change what happened. But I am here for you now. You have to let me help you."

"I don't—!" Dimitri started, then cut himself off. He didn't need her help. But when she was around, the voices quieted, and he could think more clearly. "...You don't need to help me," he finally said, voice low. "You...you shouldn't waste your time with me."

"You are not a waste of time, Dimitri," Byleth said, with the same firmness she had had on the battlefield. "Whoever said that to you, give me their name, and I will have a word with them." Her tone implied she would do more than just that.

Dimitri chuckled, a cruel smile crossing his face. "They are nothing but ghosts, now. They speak to me in the silence. Every day I do not act, they call to me, and—"

"Then I will speak over them," Byleth snapped. Dimitri startled, eye meeting hers. "I will tell you that you're not a waste of time, that you are worth my time, anyone's time. I enjoy the time I spend with you. Do you think I would invite you here out of pity?"

Dimitri tried to pull away, but Byleth held on, warm hands wrapped around his cold ones. "Professor—"

"Of course I _worry_ about you Dimitri, with how you throw yourself into battle with no concern for your own health! Did you not think that watching that bandit stab you hurt almost as badly as if it had been me being stabbed?"

"There is no reason for you to think that way!" Dimitri snarled, his other hand slamming down on the table, the legs creaking ominously. "I am nothing but a beast. Even if I regain my title, what I have done cannot be changed. You said it yourself, we cannot turn back time. I am stained with countless people's blood."

"Do you think me some pure, holy figure?" Byleth asked, eyes cold. "I was a mercenary. I showed no feeling when I killed. I remember how nervous you all were when I first started teaching you. Do you think I am undeserving of forgiveness? Shall I walk alone down my path of blood?"

Dimitri rose to his feet suddenly, his only thought leaving him in a powerful "No!"

They were silent for a beat.

Dimitri pressed his hand to his shoulder, teeth grit. After a second, he sighed, covered his face with his other hand before letting out a chuckle. "I think I popped my stitches, professor."

Byleth stared, followed by a slow blink. Then a small smile crossed her face, and she shook her head. "Oh, Dimitri." His hands trembled at the gentle way she still said his name. 

She stood, and crossed the room to her bookshelf. "I have some materials here. Or I can get Mercedes or Manuela to help. I'll go—"

"Don't," Dimitri said a bit too forcefully. "I mean—I am fine with your stitching."

Byleth gave him another half-smile, and he found himself turning away yet again. "Ah, do you remember when I stitched you up when you were a student?" She moved some books out of the way to reach an old, worn wooden box. "I think I was a bit rough with you, since I was used to helping mercenaries and not young nobles. You were a good sport about it, though." Catching Dimitri out of the corner of her eye, awkwardly standing in the middle of the room with his hand still clamped over his shoulder, she paused. "Sit on the bed, Dimitri, it'll be easiest to doctor you there." 

Dimitri stammered, "I—professor, are you sure that's—?"

"Yes," Byleth responded immediately, voice firm. "It's fine."

Dimitri shut his mouth and sat on the edge of the bed, eye on his boots but watching Byleth as well. Opening the box she had gotten, Byleth pulled out a small pouch with a needle, examining it. Seeming to find it up to par, she brought the box over, setting it on the bed next to Dimitri.

Dimitri stared at his hands while she checked the other contents of the old medical kit. "If I may ask," he said quietly, "why do you have medical supplies in your quarters?"

Byleth paused, giving a slight shrug. "When I first came here, I wasn't sure if I could trust the facilities. For the first few months I took care of all of my injuries myself. I was just being cautious, I guess."

"Oh." For some reason, imaging Byleth sewing up her wounds alone in this room while Dimitri had been somewhere else, doing something certainly less important, made him feel terrible. "I'm sorry."

Byleth shook her head. "It's fine. You were just students. And I've been through worse." Dimitri kept stone still as her boots stopped in front of him, still covered in grass. "Not very comforting, is it."

"No, I suppose not," he muttered.

Byleth reached out, patted one of his shoulders. "Alright. Turn around and take your sweater off. I'll have you back to normal in no time."

Dimitri froze, feeling his face get hot. "I—"

Byleth huffed, waving a hand. "Oh, don't get embarrassed about it. I can't count how many men I've stitched up. In all sorts of places. Take it off before I take it off for you." She conjured a small fire spell to sterilize the needle, as if she hadn't said something that almost made his heart stop.

Dimitri turned around on the bed, trying to ignore that it was Byleth, his old professor, looking at him, and took off the black sweater he always wore under his armor. He winced as the fabric peeled away from the bloody wound, pulling off the sweater a bit too quickly in a mild panic.

"Ah," Byleth said from behind him. "Yes, you definitely ripped it back open. Let me look a bit more closely." She wiped around the wound with a small cloth, being more gentle than he thought necessary. "Looks like you ripped open three of your stitches. It won't take long to fix." She put her hand on his shoulder in some measure of encouragement.

"That's good," Dimitri managed to grit out. He deliberately ignored the feeling of her calloused fingers slipping from his shoulder, moving to his injury.

There was a slight pull as Byleth began to stitch him together, an occasional sting from the needle. For some reason it seemed she was being even more cautious than she had when he was a student.

Careful to not move his head and pull on the half stitched wound, Dimitri ran a hand through his hair. "I apologize."

Byleth hesitated in her stitch. "For what?"

He sighed. "For being a fool, I suppose. I did not properly defend myself in battle, and got injured. And then I argued with you about it. I... don't know what I was thinking."

"Well, you've been through a lot, through the war and just in the past few days. I can't blame you for getting a little heated."

Dimitri watched Byleth's shadow on the wall work. "I should not have taken it out on you. And now, once again, you are fixing my mistakes."

Byleth shook her head. "If you insist on seeing it that way, I do not mind. No matter how many times you run into battle and do not defend yourself properly, I will always heal you. Though at the end of the day, I can't help but wonder if I was a poor teacher if you fight without defense."

"That— that is not what I meant to imply, professor!" Dimitri sputtered.

Byleth laughed, the first honest laugh he could remember coming from her recently. "I was just teasing." She sighed, warm breath fading over Dimitri's shoulder. "You don't need to do everything alone, Dimitri. Your whole class is there for you, and me as well."

Dimitri chewed on his lip, lowering his eye. "I... I know. But I do not feel I deserve it."

"I do not think I should have been a professor, but there I was." There was a quiet snip of scissors, and Byleth leaned back. "Alright, you're put back together. Remember to be careful with that arm."

Dimitri reached back, lightly running his fingers over the wound. It was still a little sticky, but felt whole. "Thank you, professor."

"It's no problem." Byleth went to rinse her hands in a washbasin while Dimitri pulled his sweater back on. 

He glanced over, finding their abandoned tea. "Oh, professor, our tea!"

Byleth followed his gaze. "I'll still drink it cold, if you want to finish."

Dimitri stood, mindful of his arm. "I would… appreciate that." He sat back in his chair as Byleth dried her hands and took her place across from him again.

She took a long drink from the teacup, almost as if it were liquor. "I can't see into your head, Dimitri. I was gone for so long. I feel like I missed out on so much. But if you don't think you deserve the people around you, you still have the future. You don't have to be held by your past. A change tomorrow begins with a decision today." Byleth leaned forward on the table with her elbows. "And even if I could go back in time, back to when I first met you, I would still choose the Blue Lions house. All of you taught me how to really be someone. And you're included in that, Dimitri." She smiled. "I'm happy I got to meet you."

Dimitri blinked. "I... professor..." Oh, he didn't want to cry in front of her. He shook his head, clearing his throat. "I do not think it needs to be said, but I'm happy I met you too. I'm sure the rest of the Blue Lions feel that way as well. You were a wonderful teacher, even if we do not always take your advice to heart." Dimitri sipped his tea, the smell of it faint now that it was cold. "I sometimes wonder what might have become of me had I not met you."

Byleth shrugged. "No use thinking about that. You should look towards the future, Dimitri. You can make it what you want it."

He sighed, meeting her eye with a small smile. "With you by my side, I think I can agree."

**Author's Note:**

> Wow this is my first fanfic posted on Ao3! It's been a long time since I finished the blue lions route and I missed my boy, so I wrote this a little while ago. I should finish my second run, honestly...  
> Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this! Thanks a bunch for reading!


End file.
